Leading military supporter of Sumatran autonomy dies

PADANG, West Sumatra (JP): A renowned military supporter of autonomy for Sumatra, Col. (ret.) Ahmad Husein, died in Jakarta on Saturday at the age of 73.

His body arrived in Padang at noon on Saturday and was buried with full military honors at Kuranji Heroes' Cemetery later in the same day.

Ahmad, a former leader of the Banteng Council which supported autonomy for Sumatra, had been receiving treatment for an illness at Gatot Subroto military hospital in Jakarta for three weeks.

Among those who attended the funeral were Minister of Manpower Fahmi Idris, Harun Zein, Maj. Gen. Ismed Yuzairi, Ahmad's son-in- law, and the Governor of West Sumatra Muchlis Ibrahim.

Ahmad was born in Kuranji, Padang, on April 1, 1925. He fought in guerrilla campaigns against the Dutch colonial forces and entered the military during the Japanese occupation of 1942-1945. In 1946 he took over command of the Kuranji Harimau (Tiger) Battalion and was dubbed Harimau Kuranji (tiger of Kuranji) on account of the battalion's famed resistance against the Dutch.

Dissatisfaction with the central government led Ahmad and a number of other officers and civilians to proclaim the PRRI -- the Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Indonesia.

Ahmad went on to lead the Banteng Council in central Sumatra, which was set up in the region in November 1956, followed by establishment of similar councils in other areas of the island.

A younger brother of the deceased, Syofyan Kahar, said Ahmad was not the leader of a separatist movement.

"The deceased fought only for autonomy, just like the demands being raised in the current reform era," Syofyan said.

Other former activists also said the movement was set up to fight for autonomy rather than a separate state, claims corroborated in a study conducted by American political scientist Barbara Harvey, whose work is published as PRRI/Permesta: A Half- Hearted Rebellion.

Another retired officer linked to the PRRI movement, Lt. Col. (ret.) Syoeib, said Ahmad's death was a loss to efforts to rewrite the history of the movement, which was crushed around 1961. The perception that the movement had separatist intentions stigmatized those associated with it, Syoeib said.

"We, as former members of PRRI, are trying to explain to the public what really happened," he said when addressing the funeral. (28/anr)